This invention relates to an electrical junction box for being mounted on a rear face of an on-vehicle instrument in overlapping relation to an adjuster of this instrument.
Instruments, including a speedometer, are mounted within an instrument panel or a steering column of a vehicle. In this kind of on-vehicle instrument, a movement is angularly moved in accordance with a speed measurement signal or the like, and a pointer, moving in interlocked relation to the movement, indicates a speed value or the like. In this kind of on-vehicle instrument, an adjuster for setting and adjusting the behavior and indication value of a pointer, etc., is, in many cases, provided at a rear side of the movement, with a base board interposed therebetween.
On the other hand, electrical junction boxes (called a junction block or a junction box), containing a branch connector of a wire harness, functional circuits, etc., are mounted in a vehicle. Among such electrical junction boxes, there is the type which is located within an instrument panel or a steering column, and particularly is located at a rear side of an on-vehicle instrument as disclosed in Japanese Patent Publication No. 2003-146223A. In this case, there are occasions when such an electrical junction box is mounted in overlapping relation to the adjuster provided on the rear face of the on-vehicle instrument.
However, once the electrical junction box is mounted in the above position, it is very difficult to operate the adjuster of the on-vehicle instrument from the exterior since the electrical junction box is disposed in overlapping relation to the adjuster. Therefore, for operating the adjuster, it is necessary to once remove the mounted electrical junction box. Then, it is necessary to again mount the electrical junction box in position. Namely, it is necessary to perform detaching and attaching operation of the electrical junction box in addition to the originally-intended adjusting operation.
In recent years, there are extensively used combination meters having a plurality of indicators (including a speedometer, a tachometer for an engine, a temperature indicator, etc.,) integrally incorporated therein. In this case, it is necessary to adjust movements corresponding respectively to the plurality of indicators, and the frequency of adjustments of the adjusters increases more and more. Namely, it becomes essential to reduce the time and labor required for the above adjusting operation.